


Together

by douchecasters



Category: One Direction (Band)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-02-03
Updated: 2014-02-02
Packaged: 2018-01-11 00:40:04
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 9,058
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1166539
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/douchecasters/pseuds/douchecasters
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Rachel finds out she's pregnant and well <br/>Louis gets a little scared</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

Rachel’s POV

“Shit…” I muttered to myself as I sat on the cold tiled floor in my bathroom. It was there in plane black and white: a plus sign. I tried to think that this had to be a dream, a night mare even, but it was all real.

“Rach? You okay?” I heard Lauren on the other side of the door. “Dude, let me in.”

“No, I’m going to the bathroom.” She huffed out a sigh and I heard the wood creak against her steps as she walked away. We shared a dingy flat together in London. It wasn’t much but it wasn’t expensive and it got us by and that’s all I needed. I sat up immediately because I actually needed her more than anyone else right now. “Lauren?” I said swinging open the door.

“Yeah?” she called from the kitchen.

“Can you come here?” More creaks of the floor echoed throughout the place as she paced over to me, her steps a little faster than usual.

“What’s wrong? You’ve been acting weird all day.” I didn’t know what to say to her. There was no easy way of telling her this so I kind of just took a deep breath before grabbing the test off the counter and showing her.

“Fucking hell,” she muttered under her breath. I broke down then. I didn’t know why I was crying but I was and she pulled me into a hug, letting me stain the shoulder of her shirt with my tears. “It’s gonna be alright, Rach. You just gotta relax. Deep breaths.” I did as she instructed and calmed myself down. She walked with me to the couch where we sat and spent about twenty minutes trying to get my heart rate down back to normal again.

“I don’t know what I’m going to do,” I whispered after a while of silence.

“What are you thinking?”

“I’m thinking a lot of things,” I answered bluntly. “I’m thinking about how to tell Louis and how the boys will take it and how my parents will feel and the rest of our family. I’m thinking about how I’m going to support it and if I’m going to be alone.”

“You won’t be alone. Louis’ gonna be there.”

“Not if he doesn’t want to be,” I argued sadly. Yes, I knew how much he loved me and I felt the same way for him, but. It’s just that a baby is a lot of time and money. Neither of which we had. We were both sophomores at University of London. Louis worked at a small tea shoppe down the road from his flat while I worked at a record shoppe downtown. It was quiet and always had great music playing so I appreciated it. But neither jobs paid much. We both scraped by on what we needed and now…a fucking baby.

“Louis isn’t that shady. You know that. But if that were the case, you’re still not alone. Cause ya got me. Always,” she said holding her pinky out and I wrapped mine around hers. Lauren’s my favorite.  “This child is going to be such a badass,” she smirks and I laugh weakly. It was a weak laugh but still a laugh and that’s why I love her (not only because I have to). She’s always there to lighten the mood for me when I need it most.

“Yeah,” I smiled.

“So, I suppose you should give Louis a ring.” She lets a few moments pass as I pull out my phone before speaking again. “Then maybe he’ll give you  _a ring_ ,” she started giggling to herself and soon it turned into her doubled over on the couch.

“Oh my god it wasn’t that funny,” I said holding back the urge to join her in laughter. How insensitive. And funny.

“Hey baby,” Louis’ voice sang so sweetly into my ear. “Hey I only got about two minutes to talk so be brief, love.” I could hear the busy rush hour and the tea being brewed and poured behind him.

“Do you think you can come by later after work?”

“Yeah, sure, should I bring anything? Should I come prepared for an eventful evening?” he muttered into the phone and I felt my stomach churn.

_That didn’t work very well about a month ago for us, Louis. So, I don’t think it’s the best time._

“No, babe, not tonight I don’t think. Lauren’s planning her FRIENDS marathon tonight so she’ll be right across the hall.” Lauren snickered behind me and I waved her off.

“Damn her. She’s like on level expert of being a cock block.”  _So is our baby, Lou._ I giggled and then I heard his manager shouting at him in the distance. “Gotta go, Rach. See you later!” and the line was dead.

“Be prepared for an emotional evening, my friend,” Lauren warned me and I nodded. She sat with me and we discussed plans that made me feel a little more excited about the baby than I was before. Lauren’s glass was always half full.

—

There was a knock on the door around three that afternoon and I suddenly felt so nervous I was paralyzed. I didn’t want to get up because then he’d have to come in and then I’d have to tell him and I really didn’t want to do that. Lauren patted my knee and smiled at me reassuringly before she sprang to the door.

“Ah, well, if it isn’t Lauren. Are you sure you don’t want to go out with some friends tonight? Surely, you’ve made some great friends at Uni right?”

“Sorry, Lou, not tonight,” she said patting his shoulder and he nudged her off. Louis turned into the living room and smiled fondly at me before planting a kiss on my lips. Lauren gave me a thumbs up before trotting down the hall to her room.

“You want something to drink?” Louis asked as he marched into the kitchen to the fridge.

“No,” I muttered and he shrugged.

“Oh, speaking of drinking, Niall invited us to this New Year’s Eve party he’s throwing next month. There’s supposed to be tons of alcohol. It’s supposed to be sick as hell. So don’t make any plans,” he said with a wink and I just gave a weak smile.

“I’m gonna have to pass, Lou,” I said just above a whisper as he plopped down on the couch next to me.

“Oh yeah, and why’s that?”

“I don’t think it’d be safe for me to drink.”

“Oh come on, it’ll be a great stress reliever for finals.”

“Louis, I just can’t,” I spat. He gave me a concerning look and I quickly apologized for being moody.

“What’s wrong, love?” he asked me with sad eyes. I took a deep breath and took his hand in mine.

“Okay, Louis,”

“Yes?”

“I’m – uh – I’m pregnant.” Silence. Nothing but silence after that. he sat there staring blankly at me and I could see a wave of emotions dancing over his face: fear, anger, confusion, worry, lost, scared, but a bit happy and excited. But he said nothing. He was speechless. And Louis Tomlinson is never speechless.

“Right,” he said after about twenty minutes. “I gotta get going. Got – uh – intro to philosophy class. See you around.”

“Louis             wait!”

“I can’t be late for class. School is important, ya know.”

“But Louis we ne-” and the door was slammed shut.

—

Four hours went by. It was about seven at night that I had been crying to Lauren.

“There’s no way he’s leaving you, Rach. I know him and he’s better than that.” she kept saying to me.

“Lauren, I fucking know him too! He is – was – my boyfriend, remember? That’s kind of how we go into this whole mess.”

“No, not was.”

“Lauren, it’s pretty damn obvious he doesn’t want to handle this which kind of means we’re done.” She was relentless. She kept defending him and I was getting fucking tired of it. It wasn’t her fault though. It was her instinct for any situation. Lauren always had a way to defend both sides of an argument. “I just need to be alone for a while.”

“Okay,” she whispered. “Let me know if you need anything.” She gave me a quick hug before marching off to her room. I lounged back onto the couch and turned on Ed Sheeran. He was my favorite singer and Louis’. We loved listening to it together.

I thought about the day we met. Louis was a friend of Lauren’s who she would talk endlessly about. He met her in his second year of secondary school. She told me about his jokes and how much she got in trouble for being too loud in class. I had always said I wanted to meet him and eventually we found a day to set up where she brought him over. I had already developed a crush on him from the thousands of pictures Lauren had shown me. But I did not tell her because she would probably kill me. When he came over, he was a complete gentleman and very funny.

_“Lou-Bear!” Lauren shouted when he pulled into her driveway._

_“I told you to quit calling me that, love,” he said hugging her briefly._

_“Whatever,” she said ruffling his hair. “Lou, this is Rachel. Rach this little shit is Louis.”_

_“Ah, the one who owns Lauren’s complete other half of existing.”_

_“That’d be me,” I nodded._

We hit it off that night. We were both cracking jokes, occasionally making fun of Lauren. He liked the same music as me and he was quite competitive like me. It took us about five more months since that day for us to admit our feelings.

             _“I don’t think we can do it, Lou.”_

_“Why not? We see each other enough. We’ve known one another long enough.”_

_“Lauren wouldn’t like it.” I argued._

_“Lauren urged me to tell you for months. She said our love was ‘written in the stars by fait itself’.”_

_“That hardly makes sense,” I smirked._

_“Does she ever make sense?” he asked rhetorically. I just giggled but was cut off by soft lips pressing against mine. It was slow and a bit awkward but all the more sweet and exciting. He pulled away and gave me that god damned smile from the corner of his mouth. “C’mon, Rachel. I really like you.” I didn’t say anything but instead pressed my lips against his quickly._

_“Lauren’s going to kill us,” I giggled against his mouth. He stood up and lifted me in his arms._

_“Then allow us to be murdered by the retched Lauren and we will love and die together. Like the legendary Romeo and Juliet!” he proclaimed spinning me around. “Be my Juliet, love.”_

  _“If you insist,” I smiled and he kissed me again._

That night was the spark of a bright new relationship that was now about 3 years old. I thought about the first time he told me he loved me. It was an all-around bad day. It was one of those days where I wanted to shrivel up and hide from the world. I was hiding in my room and Lauren had tried plenty of times to talk to me but I just told her off. I sat in there and listened to some old records I bought with my pay from the shoppe.

_“Babe?” he muttered through the white wooden door. “Rachel, please open the door.”_

_“I don’t want to talk, Louis.”_

_“Did I do something?” I couldn’t see his eyes or his face but I could hear sadness dripping from his lips so I took a few breaths and wiped a tear from my cheek before I stood from my bed. I opened the door and he gave me a half smile._

_“No,” I whispered and he pushed the door fully open and snaked his arms around my waist, pulling me into a deep kiss. I kissed him back at first but I had a little voice in the back of my head and I had to push him away. “Lou, stop.”_

_“Talk to me, Rach.” He cradled me in his arms and we waddled towards the bed until we both plopped down. “What’s bothering you?”_

_“Louis, I’m not good.”_

_“I’m confused.”_

_“I’m not good. I am not a good person. I am not good enough for you.”_

_“You’re talking complete rubbish.”_

_“No I am not damn it!” I shouted at him and his lips pursed. “I’m sorry.” He lunged at me and pressed a kiss to my lips. It was hard and passionate and I could feel the heat behind it._

_“You are, though, Rachel. You’re beautiful, smart, hilarious, open minded, creative, sarcastic, and just the right amount of immature and mature for me. You’re my kind of perfect. And…I love you.” He beamed at me with his bright smile and big blue eyes and I felt like every wrong thing just became right._

_“I love you too, Louis.” He chuckled and pressed a kiss to my lips and then to my nose and then to my cheeks and forehead and chin and my eyelids and my temple and then finally my lips again._

_“Oh god, I really love you.” He giggled and I laughed with him._

My fondest memories with Louis were much more bountiful. I had thousands and thousands of great times with him.

But now my blue-eyed angel was incognito. He hadn’t answered my calls or text messages and I didn’t know what to do with myself. I really thought he would be there.

_Settle down with me_

_Cover me up_

_Cuddle me in_

_Lie down with me_

_Hold me in your arms_

_And your heart’s against my chest_

_Lips pressed in my neck_

I could almost hear my Louis singing the lyrics ever so softly into my ear like he normally would. I drifted off into a deep sleep, letting the tears fall from the tip of my nose to the beige coloured carpet of the living room floor.

—

(Louis POV)

I didn’t have my intro to philosophy class. I don’t even know if that was a thing. Actually, I knew it was a class I just didn’t take it. But what else was I supposed to do? Well, I know I could have done a lot of things that would be better than walking out on her. I didn’t want to do that. Really, I just became scared. It’s a fucking baby for Christ’s sake. I’m not ready for that. No way in hell. I can barely afford to feed myself, but now a baby?

I really didn’t have a destination when I left the girls’ flat this afternoon. I just really needed to leave. It was selfish I know and I don’t want to leave Rachel. I love her. I love her more than anything. I just knew that I couldn’t handle it. I’m not brave enough or strong enough and I just really didn’t need to show that to Rachel. She always saw me as like…like a…I don’t know…her savior. I was always the one to bring her up when she was down. I believed that I was destined to be there for her, no matter what.

_There I was one morning before school started.it was a week after I started dating Rachel and things were going fantastic. I was talking to my mate Liam by the lockers when I saw Lauren and Rachel walk through the doors from the bus lot._

_“My girls,” I smiled at them as they drew closer._

_“I’m your favorite though, right?” Rachel asked with a cheeky grin and I kissed her beautiful plump lips. Lauren scoffed at the same time Liam did and they both laughed._

_“High five!” Liam proposed holding his hand up to Lauren who gladly accepted his offer._

_“Lauren, look, it’s Markie,” Rachel said as she pointed at one of Lauren’s Mexican friends._

_“Hell, I’ll be right back guys,” Lauren said patting my back._

_“Hey, Tomlinson!” a boy called Brian shouted from the other side of the hallway._

_“Matthews what’s up?” he came closer and gave me a high five, although I didn’t really want to. He was an alright kid and all but he just was a douche. But, he was never that bad to me, so why be a sourpuss to him right?_

_“Hey Liam,” he gave a curt nod to Liam._

_“Hey mate.”_

_“Hey guys look out.  The great white whale is right behind ya!” he shouted with a cackle. I turned around to see Rachel dropping her head a little and I have never felt so angry in my life._

_“Excuse me?” I said with gritted teeth turning back towards the douchenozzle._

_“No, man, I’m not talking about you. Talking about Jensen.”_

_“I am fully aware of who you were talking about. You were talking about Rachel, right?” he nodded. “That’s my girlfriend, dickhole.” Before he could respond, his jaw was knocked out of line with my right fist. He fell to his bum and stared at me with pure shock._

_“The hell, Louis?”_

_“That was to teach a little lesson,” I said giving him a grim smile. “Remember kids,” I announced now to all of the spectators watching in anticipation for a fight to spark. “It’s not very nice to be rude to such drop-dead-gorgeous ladies like my girlfriend here.” I pressed a light kiss to her lips and she smiled brighter than the moon at me._

Eh, I got suspended for a couple of days for that punch but it was all worth it. She was worth it.

“Louis?” Ah shit, she found me. I should’ve known better. For the past few hours, I’ve been sitting in the tunnel slide of the park I used to go to as a child. It was my favorite place. I ran away from my mum once for not letting me eat a second cookie and came here. It was just a peaceful, happy place full of little memories. I took Lauren here to show her before I met Rachel and told her the stories of the Tommo’s past. She laughed at every one no matter how stupid they actually were. She really is my best friend.

“Lou, get out of the slide before you get stuck in it,” she called from the top of the yellow tube. I huffed out a sigh and unlocked my legs from the sides and slid down. I sat down at the end of the slide and waited for Lauren to make her way down the ladder on the other side of the play set.

“How’d you know I’d be here?” I asked her, even though I felt as if I already knew the answer.

“I know ya best, Lou-Bear.” She extended her arm out to me with an open hand. When I didn’t react at first she shook her hand to get my attention and let out an annoyed sigh. She was so impatient it was a little funny. I wrapped my fingers around her hand and she yanked back her arm bringing me to my feet.

“Is she okay?” I asked carefully as we walked towards the swings. I think I was just a little desperate to hear about my girl. She took a seat on the blue swing and I on the red one right next to it. She swayed back in forth while she spoke.

“Do you really think she would be? Her baby daddy left her in the dust.” I took a deep breath and shook my head. Don’t cry now, Tomlinson. “She’s sleeping now. At least she was when I left. She was listening to Ed.”

“Shit.”

“Yeah, shit is right, Lou. Why’d ya leave? I know that’s not you.”

“I…I don’t know I just got scared.”

“Did you think it would jump out and eat you?” she asked as seriously as she could. It made me laugh a little.

“No, I just…it’s a baby, Lauren.”

“I know, Louis. But I also know that it’s not gonna help much if it’s got one parent…or two mothers who just happen to be cousins. It’s just weird.”

“Stop making me laugh,” I chuckled. “These are serious times.”

“You’re not treating them like they’re serious,” she said more sternly. I was silent for a minute because Lauren was using that tone of voice that made me feel like a dick. She took my silence as a signal to continue. “This isn’t a game, Louis. You can’t just quit when you’re afraid you’re going to lose. You can’t just hit restart and pretend like the last try didn’t happen. Because it did happen, Louis. Rachel is pregnant and you’re the father. You have to step up to the plate and be a man.”

“But I can’t!” I shouted back and she took her turn to be silent because she hated when I yelled. “At least I don’t think I can be. Not yet anyways,” I said more quietly. “This baby is going to be a human being and I think it should be blessed with a beautiful life but I can’t do that. I can barely afford for myself, how am I supposed to have a kid? She deserves better than me.”

“She?”

“Yeah,” I smiled. “I just kind of pictured a little girl.”

“Yeah? What’d she look like?”

“Well, She’s going to have Rachel’s eyes, because they’re a calmer blue than mine are and I like them more. But, she has my hair, which is pretty close to Rachel’s too. And she had Rachel’s freckles and my nose and Rachel’s smile.”

“That sounds like quite a beautiful little girl. Don’t ya think that little girl needs a father? Do you really want her to feel the way you did?” she asked me. It hit me then. My dad left my family when I was a tyke. He left my mom with four little girls and their older brother. If I left Rachel, I’d be just like my father and that’s the last person I wanted to turn out like personally.

“No, of course not,” I said shaking my head.

“Then get off this damn red swing and go back to your girlfriend before you fuck more things up than her.” I stood from my swing when Lauren did and pulled her into a big hug. She was shorter than Rachel so she wrapped her arms around my waist and mine folded over her shoulders. I pressed my cheek against the top of her head and for the first time I didn’t hold the tears back.

“Thanks, Lauren,” I said shakily into her hair. “I love you, babe.”

“Love you too kid,” she said squeezing me tighter. “You’re not in this alone. I’m gonna be there and so is Niall. As long as I get to be the godmother, I’m in.” She laughed against my chest and I giggled a little too.

—

We drove back to her flat in silence. Occasionally, Lauren would give me smiles from the driver’s seat and tell me encouraging words of wisdom but that was it. We pulled into the driveway and I allowed her to go in first, to check on Rachel. She told me that if she turned on the kitchen light, then it was my signal to come in. I watched from the passenger’s seat until I saw the faint gold light shining from through the blinds. I took a deep breath and slowly undid my seatbelt and climbed out from the car.  Before I even reached the front door, Lauren swung it open and nodded at me.

“Someone’s here to see you,” she said towards Rachel who I assumed was sitting in the living room.

I walked through the door and gave a curt nod to Lauren before setting my eyes on my beautiful baby on the couch, her eyes puffy and cheeks wet from tears.

“I’ll be in my room,” Lauren said before walking down the hall. The room was silent for a while before I broke it because honestly, I couldn’t take it any longer.

“Hi,” I said sheepishly.

“Hi.”

“I am so sorry, Rachel. It was immature to walk out like that.” she just nodded and I took it as my cue to continue. “But I don’t want to walk out. I want to be here. I want to be here through the morning sickness and the checkups and the doctor’s appointments and the mood swings and the cravings and everything. I want to be here to see our baby grow into a beautiful human being with a strong mind and a wild imagination. This is our baby, Rachel,” I said resting a hand on her stomach. “And I am going to be there every step of the way. I’m not leaving either of you.” I cradled her in my arms and let her sob a few tears into my chest, holding her as close as I can. “It’s alright, love. I’m not leaving. Shh, baby, it’s okay.”

“We can’t do it, Lou,” she sobbed.

“Stop that. We can do it and we will do it. But only if we’re in it together. Okay?”

“Okay.” I kissed her lips and smiled down at her.

“Together,” I promised holding my pinky out.

“Together,” she repeated.

So I sat there on the floor with her cradled in my arms and my hand pressed to her stomach.

"Will you sing?" she asked me.

"Course, love," i obliged and picked the first song that came to mind.

_You might be left with my hair_

_but you’ll have your mother’s eyes._

_  
_Rachel smiled up at me as I continued to sing to her and our unborn baby.

_You are my one and only_

_You can wrap your fingers around my thumb_

_and hold me tight._


	2. Memories

Louis POV

            Well, the day was approaching us. We were coming to an end of this nine month journey and Rachel was both excited and nervous like I was. We decided to surprise ourselves with the sex of the baby so we weren’t positive if it would be a boy or a girl. Rachel said it wouldn’t matter because whether it’d be a boy or a girl, the baby was getting a blue room.

_“Well, if it’s a girl, shouldn’t we get stuff for a pink room?” I asked her one day whilst sitting on her couch. Lauren and Rachel both scoffed together and I rolled my eyes._

_“Pink is stupid,” Rachel said lowering herself to the couch. At this point she didn’t have a full belly but it was pretty close and I was secretly hoping there was a girl in there because I wanted someone to spoil._

_“Pink is a very stereotypical color for a girl,” Lauren added from the chair on the other side of the room._

_“Oh, don’t be throwing that word around just because you think you sound smarter using bigger words,” I teased her and she just stuck her tongue out at me._

_“She’s right though, and don’t pick on ma Lauren,” Rachel said slapping my arm playfully. I took her hand in my left and placed my right on her stomach. She put her head on my right shoulder and I gave her a small smile._

            We had great support all through the pregnancy. It was hard telling people about it at first but most of them were on board and ready to help. I remember telling the boys for the first time.

             _I took hold of her hand and offered her a reassuring smile as we stood outside the door. It had been a couple days since we found out and we were getting ourselves ready to tell the boys. We made Lauren promise not to tell Niall until we told everyone else because he was a huge blabbermouth._

_“It’s going to be alright, love.” she nodded at me and I pressed a kiss to her jaw before opening the door. They boys were all sat around the telle watching a game of footie, Lauren was tucked firmly under Niall’s arm at one end of the couch. She was in between him and Harry who was in the middle of the couch. Next to him, on the other end of the sofa, was Zayn. Liam was sat in the desk chair. I was glad I had best mates like these. I had met Liam in high school and I had known Lauren and Niall since high school as well. I met Zayn starting freshman year in my Journalism class. Harry I’ve known since I was a tyke. His mum moved in next door in the summer of when I was about 7 and Harry was 5. I took him under my wing and kind of guided him through life. It was great still having him around._

_“Hey, mate!” Liam shouted tearing his eyes from the screen for a quick wave._

_“Hey Rach!” Harry smiled at her and she waved sheepishly. Lauren looked at me with worried eyes and I just nodded at her, trying to find some way to tell her that it would be okay._

_“Guys, we have to talk to you,” I said taking the remote from Niall’s hand and turning it off._

_“Hey, we were watching that,” Niall whined._

_“Let them talk,” Lauren said hushing him. I took a seat in the reclining chair across from Liam and smiled as Rachel sat on my lap._

_“Lads, I have to talk to you about something very important and I really don’t know how to say it so I will be blunt.” I took a deep breath before telling them the truth. “Rachel’s pregnant.” I watched as eight pairs of eyes widen. Everyone went silent._

_“Well,” Harry stuttered out after a couple minutes, “what are you going to do?”_

_“We’re going to keep it and raise it,” I said nodding. After that, everyone fell silent again. I couldn’t take it anymore. “Look, I know you probably can’t think of anything to say at the moment. We can understand you being speechless. We just wanted to tell you. You all are so important to me, and we can use all the support we can get. We understand if you can’t or won’t though.”_

_“I’m happy for you, mate,” Liam said with a smile. He stood from his spot with open arms and Rachel rushed to give him a hug. Niall was next to go and hug me first and then to hug Rachel while Liam hugged me. Zayn stood up and followed suit. We all looked to Harry who was looking at no one but the ground._

_“Hazza,” I said desperately. I felt so scared like I would lose him. He didn’t say anything before he wrapped an arm around both mine and Rachel’s necks pulling us into a hug._

_“I’m there with you every step of the way,” he muttered in between our heads._

_“We all will be,” Zayn added._

That was the best out of all of them. Rachel rang her parents that night and there were a lot of tears and a lot of apologies but in the end, everything was kind of okay. Her mom said she was excited for her and I promised both her mother and father that I was here by her side every step of the way. Lauren talked to them too and she made a solemn promise that she’s there for her cousin. I don’t think they doubted her one bit considering they’ve gone through  _everything_ together. I called my mum that night and while she was upset, she promised she would be there for the support. Rachel’s and Lauren’s parents would be visiting around Christmas break from up north. I think my favorite reaction out of everyone, comic wise, was Lauren’s mum.

            “ _Mom?” Lauren said through the phone._

_“Lauren?” her mother mocked. She laughed a bit but she was in a bit of a nerve wrecking state giving what she was about to tell her._

_“Did you talk to Aunt Karen?”_

_“Um, not since yesterday, why?” she took a deep breath before answering. Rach, Lauren, and I were all gathered around the phone with the speaker setting on._

_“Mom, Rachel’s pregnant.” There was a silence on the phone before she started laughing so hard. “Why are you laughing?” Rachel asked into the phone._

_“Because,” she said through deep breaths, “I was going to say,” Another deep breath, “you’re screwed. But you already are.” We all laughed and I liked that her mom lifted the mood a little. “But seriously, what the hell is wrong with you?” Then there was a very long lecture after that._

            The only one that was having a more difficult time accepting this was Lauren’s dad. He had always been a conservative man and he was not happy _at all_  about this. That was a huge problem for me because I had been part of both Lauren’s and Rachel’s lives for such a long time and I hated having disapproval from him.

            So, in the beginning, it was difficult. We heard a lot of lectures. We cried a lot of tears. We disappointed a lot of people. But, we had mostly everyone supporting us and a lot of people on board. And it was nice to have such great family and friends around and I couldn’t thank them enough for all the love and support we’ve gotten. Now, after 147 late night trips to the store for ice cream and gyros, we were three days from the due date: July 17th. We found out in November of last year.

            A flat opened up a floor beneath the girls’ flat around five months into the pregnancy. Rachel and I thought it was perfect but we were a little under the amount we needed so Rachel took up a little babysitting job for the woman who lives down two floors up from Lauren’s. It was getting us extra money plus experience with kids.

We scraped up just enough to afford the bills and Lauren helped us with buying a dresser and baby clothes (Lauren kept looking for ‘unisex’ clothing. So, basically steered away from everything pink and maybe even purple) for the baby’s room. So far, we’ve gotten a white wooden crib that Zayn helped piece together in his woodshop class and a changing mat from Harry’s mum. My mum gave us some old baby bottles she used to use on Daisy and Phoebe. Fizzy and Lottie put together little hats and quilts in their sewing class they were taking. Niall’s mum gave us an old bassinet. Rachel had a baby shower with some friends from school and we got loads of diapers so we were set on those. I used the little coupons for the local grocery store to get baby wipes. We decided we could paint the baby’s room after we found out the sex because it would be sharing a room with us for the first few months anyway. We were getting by pretty damn well I would say, but I felt as if I wasn’t supplying enough for my family.

I had been saving a lot up some money ever since I found out about our little bundle of joy. I had up to £ 2,000 saved up for over a few years of working and birthday money. I wanted to get myself a new telle but I’d much rather get this for my Rach.

“Why the hell are we at the mall at 8:30 in the morning?” Lauren whined. I had to practically pry herself from her bed because I needed help with this. Rachel had been sleeping when I left and would be for a few more hours. It had nothing to do with the pregnancy. The girl just likes her sleep.

“C’mon, you bum, I need your help picking something out.” I pulled her along into the jewelry store while she stumbled behind me. “Which one?” I asked her with a cheeky grin as we stood over the glass case protecting the various diamonds shining underneath it. She flashed me a smile so bright it made my heart smile a little. I loved when I could make my friends smile.

“Holy shit,” she gasped annunciating every syllable with a toothy grin.

“C’mon, then, I need help!” She snickered a bit before her eyes scanned the case, looking for the one that screamed Rachel Jensen.

“You know, I shouldn’t be the one to pick out this,” she stated. I rolled my eyes and joined her by the counter. “This one looks good, I think.” I ignored her. I was too busy eyeing a pair of rings in the case behind us. “Hey, you brought me here to help you. Don’t ignore me,” she said slapping my arm and I flinched. She was almost as grumpy as Rachel in the morning.

“Ow! No, I’m not ignoring you but I don’t need it anymore, look.” I pointed to the set of rings I was seeing. They were very, very simple. They were just two silver rings. But what made them special is on the inside, ‘Forever’ and ‘Always’ were engraved in them. I just really liked those words because the whole purpose of this was to spend my forever with Rachel and our new baby. This ring would be a promise to always be with her. Plus, they were under £ 2000 so that was pretty good too.

—

“Rach, you want to go for a walk?” I asked her dashing into the living room. She had been uncomfortable all day and the doctor told us one of the ways to induce labor is through physical exercise so I figured that would give me an excuse.

“Yeah, let me call Lauren and tell her to be ready,” she said lifting herself and her tummy from the couch.

“NO, I mean – I want it to be just us today – is that alright?” she gave me a hesitant nod before attempting to bend down to grab her shoes. “I got it, love,” I said helping her into an upright position before grabbing the white worn out tennis shoes off the ground. I helped her onto the seat by the door and slipped the shoe onto her foot.

“Thank you.” She sounded so small and so cute.

“Anytime, Cinderella,” I beamed making her blush my favorite shade of pink. The flush of pink outlined her freckles and brought out her eyes and when she blushed it really helped someone appreciate the true radiance in her beauty. It was magnificent. She was magnificent.

I walked down the pavement with her fingers entwined in mine. We talked about our days and about the kids from one floor up whom she babysits. We talked about how nice of kids they were and how we hoped for our baby to be just as great. We also talked about work and how ignorant people were at the record shoppe today. She said they were being rude and it made me so pissed because just thinking of the douche who offended my baby girl made me want to punch something. But I had to shake the thought off for tonight because I was about to ask the girl I love to marry me. And then afterwards, I’ll go find the dick that was at the shoppe earlier because no one upsets Rachel. I only occasionally allow Lauren to do that but most of the time I push her.

“Where are we going even?” she laughed after about twenty minutes of walking and no sign of turning back home.

“We’re almost there.” I pulled her along until we reached the little walkway up to the fresh mulch spread across the platform. It was the same little park I had ran off to nine months ago when Lauren found me and told me to grow some balls.

“Wow,” she smiled glancing around. “I haven’t been here with you since we were like seventeen.”

“Has it been that long? Could have sworn it was last year we had our picnic,” I said poking at her sides making her squirm.

“That was like three years ago, Lou,” she giggled scrambling out of my clutch.

“A great memory never fades, my love,” I sighed shrugging my shoulders. She beamed at me and planted a light kiss to my lips.

“So why are we here?”

“Well, I’m hoping that we could make more great memories here. I mean, look at this place. It’s full of great memories waiting to happen! There’s an endless amount of possibilities. See that field over there?” I asked her pointing to the open field behind the playground set. She nodded and I continued. “That there, if we have a boy, is where I will teach him to play baseball when he’s old enough. And over here,” I said guiding her towards the line of swings. “This is where I can teach our little girl to kick her legs back and forth so she’ll know how to swing by herself. And over here,” I took her hand in mine as I jogged to biggest slide in the park, her trailing behind me and laughing. “This is where I’m going to help them slide down the biggest slide. Then, they’ll look up at me with a bright face and be so proud of themselves. Don’t ya see it, Rach? Like I said, there are a thousand memories just waiting. But I want to make the first memory our little family will have in this park,” I sat her down on the slide and pulled the little silver box from my back pocket, “the best memory.” Her baby blue eyes widened and I saw a smile stretch ear to ear. “Rachel Rose, I want to fulfill all of those awaiting memories with you and love you forever. Will you let me do that?” she nodded her head like she couldn’t get any words out. I don’t know what it was. I couldn’t explain this feeling to anyone if I tried. But it was like the last puzzle piece had fallen into place and everything was looking beautiful in the moment. Everything was way beyond perfect. I lifted her to her feet, both of us laughing, and pulled her into my arms placing kisses all along her neck, on her cheeks, her forehead, her nose, before finally kissing her lips. I pulled her back a bit only to find small tear streaks along her cheeks. I wiped them away with my thumb and she smiled at me and kissed my cheek.

“I love you, Louis,” she mumbled against my skin – making me shudder – pulling me into another hug.

“I love you, Rachel. Always, okay?”

“Okay.”

—

I tucked Rachel under my arm as we settled ourselves into bed. We were both tired because we were walking a little bit longer before we came home and while she was in the shower I made her a very romantic dinner of mac and cheese. We sat in the living room with our bowls of cheesy pasta watching Lilo and Stitch.

“Goodnight, love,” I whispered against her cheek as I pulled her back into my chest. I pressed a quick kiss to her cheek before snuggling my head into the back of her neck.

“G’night,” she mumbled.

“I love you,” I said.

“I love you too.”

“Forever,”

“And always,” she giggled sleepily and I smiled against her skin.

 

I was probably only asleep for a few hours before I was shook awake at around one in the morning.

“Louis,” I heard Rachel grunt, her voice too far away to be next to me in bed.

“Mm, what babe?” I whined not bothering to open my eyes. I don’t think I could.

“I need to…the baby…it’s coming.” I sprang from my bed. I thought I thought we still had two days! I ran to the closet and grabbed the carry-on bag and through some extra clothes in there. We already had it packed and ready to go but I wanted to be sure. I slung it over my shoulder and grabbed Rachel’s hand.

“It’s okay. It’s okay, it’s okay. Let’s go, c’mon,” I helped her out the door of the flat and helped her waddle down the stairs. I ran down the hall and banged on Lauren’s door.

“It is fucking 1:17am what do you want?!” Lauren groaned swinging the door open.

“Baby’s coming, come on,” she raised her eyebrows and grabbed a sweatshirt from the side of the doorway and slipped on some shoes before rushing out.

“Louis…pants,” Lauren said as she gripped onto Rachel’s hand.

“Shit,” I muttered before tossing the keys to her. “Go start the car. I’ll be there in a minute.”

I hustled into the bedroom and desperately searching for anything to wear. I finally found the pair of jeans I had worn earlier that day sprawled out on the floor. I scrambled to grab them and frantically pulled my legs through, almost falling in the process. When I finally had them on, I basically jumped the three flights of stairs it took to get to the main floor and out the door. There, I saw my little old pickup’s headlights lighting the pitch black pavement of the parking lot. I jumped into the back with Rachel and Lauren pulled the car into gear before speeding out of the driveway.

“Holy…” Rachel eyes were squinted as she held her stomach and winced. It pained me to see her so distressed, especially when I couldn’t do anything but watch. I took her hand in mine and she gripped it. She gripped it tight like it was the only thing holding her from falling into the pits of hell.

_Oh, oh, oh_

_Oh, oh, oh_

_Be my baby_

_Oh, oh, oh_

_Oh, oh, oh_

_Oh, oh, oh_

_Be my baby_

_And I’ll look after you_

_There now, steady love,_

_So few come and don’t go_

_Will you, won’t you be the one_

_I always know?_

Rachel smiled up at me as I sang to her. I never lost contact with those beautiful eyes as I ran my hand in circles around her belly.

“I love you,” she whispered as I continued to sing, poorly masking the agonizing pain she was in with a weak smile. I just kissed her forehead and continued to sing.

Lauren pulled into the emergency entrance of the hospital and I ripped my seatbelt off before crawling out my side and opening her side door.  We rushed into the doorway and my eyes frantically searched a front desk.

“Help, we’ve got a woman in labor here!” I shouted around the room, waiting for someone to respond. Within seconds, a nurse stood up from behind her desk and must have pressed a button or some shit from behind the counter because a bunch of doctors came rushing in with a gurney.

“Are you the father?” one man asked and I nodded as they lay her down. “Come along then.”

“What about Lauren?” I asked glancing back at her. I don’t know why but I kind of didn’t want her to miss this.

“Who is she?” the doctor questioned skeptically.

“She’s our best friend. Please doctor,” Rachel asked glancing between Lauren and the man in the white coat.

“Yes, of course, come along.” With that, I took hold of Rachel’s hand as they wheeled her down the brightly lit hallway with Lauren following close behind.

—

It had been about four hours of waiting. It was around five in the morning when the doctor came in for a third time to check the dilation before she announced it.

“Ten centimeters, it’s time, Rachel,” the nurse gave her a reassuring nod and Lauren rushed over to the other side of Rachel’s bed.

“Here we go,” I said gripping her hand.

“Okay, Rachel, I need you to take two deep breaths then push, can you do that for me?” the doctor asked patiently. She nodded and breathed in and out twice before leaning forward to push. She was screaming in agony and it hurt me physically and emotionally by the way she sounded so hurt and how much she was squeezing my hand. Lauren winced and I saw she was locked in the tight grip of her cousin’s hand too. “I see the legs,” the nurse informed us. “C’mon Rachel keep going.” Rachel finally dropped back into the bed and was panting.

“I can’t,” she muttered.

“You can, love; c’mon you’re doing so great,” I encouraged her giving a light kiss to her cheek.

“And Rach, you kind of have a baby sitting in there. You can’t just like stop,” Lauren added. As blunt as she was, it was true. Rachel nodded and took more breaths before pushing again.

“Good job, Rachel. You’re doing great. I can see her chest. One more push!” Rachel leaned as far as she could and groaned as the sounds of small cried filled the room. She fell back into her bed and closed her eyes, relaxing. I pressed a kiss to her lips and rested my forehead against mine.

“You did it, darling,” I giggled. She smiled up at me lazily and I turned to the nurse.

“Did you say  _her_ chest?” I asked excited.

“Yes, I did. Congratulations on your new baby girl,” the nurse smiled as she came back with the baby. She must have cleaned  _her_  up and cut the umbilical cord. That was perfectly fine with me. I didn’t want to go  _near_ that thing.

“Would you like to see her?” the nurse asked me. I nodded and took the little bundle of preciousness that was mine. Her eyelids lifted to reveal bright icy blue eyes like her mother’s and I have never seen something that is so little and is so extravagant in my entire life. She was beautiful and she was  _mine._

“Hi, angel,” I whispered to her, my voice high from the excitement. “Hello, it’s me! I’m your daddy!” she had little freckles on her face like her mum but a big forehead like me. I didn’t mind though. She was so damn cute. “You wanna see mummy?” I looked down at Rachel who was smiling at me and our daughter. I handed her to Rachel and she cooed at the little tot.

“Oh, you’re so beautiful,” she whispered kissing her head.

“Do we have a name?” the nurse asked. I looked down with a questioning look on my face and Rachel shrugged.

“Not yet, I don’t think.”

“That’s okay, for now we’ll call her Baby Jensen.”

“No, it’s Baby Tomlinson,” Rachel said quickly and beamed up at me. The nurse nodded her head and left us with our alone time.

“I just sent all the boys a text,” Lauren said setting her phone in her pocket again. She hugged Rachel around her shoulders and then made her way over to the other side to hug me. “Congratulations, Tommo,” she muttered into my ear. I wrapped my arms tight around her shoulders as hers snaked around my waist and it felt like she was gripping onto me just as tight as I was to her. I love Lauren like my little sister and she is (besides Rachel of course) my favorite person in the world.

“Want to hold her?” Rachel asked with raised eyebrows. Lauren nodded and anxiously waited as Rachel set her in her arms. The baby cooed up at her and just gave Lauren this look of curiosity. Her eyes were wide and bright and Lauren laughed lightly.

“You’re so precious,” she giggled, “Baby Tommo.”

“We really need a name,” I noted.

“I was thinking about that. What do you think of Avery, Lou?” Rachel asked me. I thought about it for a minute.

“Yeah, I like it. But I also like the name Beth. Maybe Avery could be her middle name.”

“Scuse?” she asked me and Lauren laughed. “Beth Avery? I think it sounds better if it was Avery Beth.” I rolled my eyes but I knew she was right.

“Yeah, Avery Beth Tomlinson.”

“Sounds beautiful,” Lauren smiled.

“Sounds perfect,” Rachel added.

—

The boys came in a few hours later (they were waiting on Niall to lug himself out of bed) and they all were wrapped around the girl’s finger in a second. Liam brought in flowers for Rachel and promised to teach the kid about Batman and The Avengers and The Justice League. Harry brought Rachel chocolates and Avery a rattle from when he was younger.

Zayn wasn’t very upfront about his emotions a lot. But everyone in that room knew he was a sucker for kids. And he couldn’t wipe the smile off his face when Avery showed off her blue eyes to him. Niall we made sit in the chair in the corner of the room with a pillow under his elbow. He looked like a child waiting to hold his new little cousin as I walked Avery over to him. He did a good job though. They all loved her and she seemed to love them too. And when Niall was done holding her, he wrapped Lauren in his arms and pressed a kiss to her lips making her laugh. And she put his snapback on over her head. And Zayn was talking about when his sisters were first born. And he made a solemn promise to me that he and the boys would always be there. And Harry and Lauren talked about being excited for getting to be the godparents. And it was like we were all this one little happy family. It was a bit dysfunctional but oh well. And I knew this wasn’t the hardest part. This little girl still had years and years to come, but that meant more memories. And I knew it was going to be hard. But I also knew I was going to love it. And I knew someday when I’m old I would look back at this day with Rachel and smile about how many adventures we’ve had since then. How many memories we actually created. And I was excited for that. so excited I don’t think anyone would understand.


End file.
